The Ritual
by Poet's Anonymous
Summary: After witnessing the rebirth of Voldemort at the end of his 4th year, Harry develops an unhealthy fascination with the very magic that brought his greatest enemy back. Will the ends truly justify the means at the end of his quest? Or will he succumb to the very thing he swore vengeance upon? A different Harry Potter. pairing undecided as of yet. R


_Hey guys, Well first of all i dont own Harry Potter nor anything in relation to him or the movie franchise etc that honor belongs to J.K. Rowling. anyway i just wrote this because i realized that very few people if any actually wrote fics based on something similar to this so i thought i'd give it a shot just for shits and gigs. as you probably can already tell from reading this short little A/N i am obviously not british and i have really no idea how to write britishly(?) other than occasionally saying bloody hell and bugger. so have some patience, and even better if anyone has any advice for a simpleton american on the british typing ways feel free to leave a review with some words of wisdom! _

_And to those of you who are wondering my other fic was abandoned because of some files issues where the story files were either lost or misplaced, but i think i will eventually try to recreate everything in time. _

_anyway i have more to say but that can wait till later!_

* * *

Harry Potter was never a normal child. In fact, normal was a word that had no meaning in any aspect of his life. This was mainly due to the fact that Harry Potter was not human; rather he was a sub species of humanity that have taken to calling themselves wizards and witches. These people were able to harness a life force from the core of their existence called magic. With this energy they were able to use it to fulfill whatever ends they desired, and with this they built a large community together until they rivaled the humans in everything except numbers. So the magical community that Harry lived in was born. Unfortunately, not all were happy with this. Several evil wizards over the years have formed cults with the purpose of terrorizing and sometimes even murdering the other members of the magical world, and especially the new comers who have never been a part of the world until a member of their family is born a wizard; these they called muggleborn. A muggle is a human with no magical capabilities, who witches and wizards keep their world a secret from. Recently the worst of these evil wizards was a man who fashioned himself the named of Lord Voldemort, hailed as many to be the one true Dark Lord.

This is where Harry Potter comes into events, for he was not even considered normal among the magical community where nothing was normal. The Dark Lord hunted Harry Potter and his family down, murdered his parents, and attempted to murder Harry himself. However, it didn't work and the deadly curse that Voldemort cast at Harry was rebound back at Voldemort himself, or so the stories all claim.

Over the years following Harry as a toddler was taken to live with his aunt and uncle and his cousin, they were not the best caretakers. The ritually abused him both mentally and physically which resulted in him being forced to curb his high level of intelligence, unconsciously of course. Harry later attended Hogwarts, the school of magic led by the prestigious Headmaster Albus Dumbledore; defeater of the previous Dark Lord Grindewald. Harry was sorted into Gryffindor the House of the brave, in this school children were sorted by a magical artifact that senses the most prevalent attributes of each child, supposedly. The children then lived in these houses for the duration of their time at the school, traditionally at least.

Throughout Harry's years of Hogwarts however, everything was different. In his first 3 years of being at the 7 year institute, the supposed safest place in magical Britain, he had been involved in a near fatal encounter with the Dark Lord or the Dark Lord's followers at least once every year. In his first year one of his professors had been possessed and Harry was nearly killed when said professor attempted to gain control of the Philosophers stone, a magical artifact capable of great power that just happened to be stored at a school. In his second year the sister of his best friend was possessed by the Dark Lord's diary and forced to unleash a massive snake with a petrifying stare which Harry slew with the sword of Godric Gryffindor, nearly dying in the process. In his third year his wrongfully imprisoned godfather broke out of Azkaban, the wizarding prison, and snuck into Hogwarts to try to find the rat, literally, who sold out Harry's parents to the Dark Lord. He ultimately failed, but the details don't matter right now. What matters is the catalyst that began Harry Potter's rapid change of state of mind, and pushed his intelligence, up until this point mostly dormant, to take over.

This catalyst was being forced to watch the resurrection of the Dark Lord into a brand new body with what followed being a demonstration on that new body's superior magical core. The event was indeed traumatic and terrifying but it did accomplish one thing. It got Harry Potter thinking, and thinking is something that his prior dormant intelligence does very well.

And so as Harry Potter sat in his small cramped room, his normally bright green eyes reduced to a dull dark glow, he lost himself in his thoughts. Every single year there had been some sort of incident where either Harry or one of Harry's friends' lives had been endangered. Each time the only reason why anyone was able to escape said incidents unscathed was out of mostly pure luck and a fraction of defensive capabilities on his part. Voldemort on the other hand seemed basically invincible. The man had lost his body for 13 years and during a 5 minutes ritual he was able to give himself a brand new body. If that was what one of Voldemort's rituals could do, Harry didn't want to know what he could become with several.

The ritual. Harry couldn't help but be fascinated by exactly what one man was capable of doing with a few rehearsed words and a couple odd items. Harry's brain worked into overdrive imagining the possibility that such things can bring about, what were the limits of any type of ritual? If Voldemort could recreate himself a body in minutes, what could Harry do for himself, if given months, or even years? What could Harry do against Voldemort with the aid of such things? The bastard had killed his parents, he wanted revenge, he realized now that that's all he ever wanted. Justice, his way. Harry reached an epiphany.

An hour later a snowy owl flew into the almost empty kitchen of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, startling the lone man sitting at the kitchen table sipping on a steaming cup of tea. The man, Sirius Black, looked up quickly, and got up to get the letter attached to the leg of the creature. Recognizing his godson's handwriting he tore open the seal to read what Harry had to say.

_Dear Sirius,_

_ I need help. You're the only person who I know I can rely on. I need to get out of this place. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and I need to go someplace I can hide, from everyone. I have an idea, a bloody crazy and insane idea, but I know it can help me. I don't want to say much more incase this letter is taken, but if you can't help me, I don't know who can,_

_Harry Potter_

* * *

Weeks later Sirius Black was sitting at his lonely kitchen table yet again when an old man in a ridiculous looking set of robes barged into the room looking very concerned. Spotting Sirius sitting and calmly drinking a bottle of butterbeer he visibly relaxed, before pulling up a chair next to the middle aged man.

"Albus, what a pleasant surprise, please sit down with me, would you like a drink?" Sirius smiled politely but Dumbledore was smart enough to sense the man's sarcasm. But he ignored it, after all he knew that once this conversation was over Sirius would be in a very good mood, most likely.

"No thank you Sirius. I did come here for a reason however, after having a long discussion with Alastor about the events at the end of the tournament last year we realized that keeping Harry at his relative's home at this point is futile, as since now Voldmeort and Harry share the same blood. To that end it is my intention to allow Harry to live here with you, I believe that would be best given his current state of mind after what happened." Dumbledore finished with a small smile being sent towards Sirius, who sighed amusedly and nodded.

"I'm glad you feel that way," Sirius motioned towards the door, "Because that's what we had already decided." Harry closed the door with a slight bang, and walked around the table to join the two men in silence.

"I know," Dumbledore's eyes twinkled brightly, "What do you think prompted our discussion?" the old man got up from the table with grace defying his years and turned to walk away, before he left the kitchen he turned towards them one last time and added "However I do not think it would be the best idea to inform anyone of Mr. Potter's change in residence, the less people know the better. Have a good summer."

"You too sir," Sirius spoke up with a grin "Well now you don't have to worry about Dumbledore walking in on your studying, or while you're doing one of your little _experiments_. You can just lock the door and tell him to bugger off!"

Harry nodded without speaking, that would make his life tremendously easier if he didn't have to hide his existence in the house from Dumbledore. Perhaps Dumbledore could even tutor him a little; the branch of magic Harry was currently studying would become much easier with the old genius's help. Besides if he couldn't get this art down then Harry was not going to be in a good place during the school year in a few months. But regardless of how the results pan out, Harry will always believe that he made the right choice. Even Sirius agreed with him, well eventually he did anyway.

_Flashback: _

"_Sirius are you sure about this?" Harry asked somewhat concerned, but more just making sure his godfather wouldn't freak out about it later. Sirius waved him off._

"_Yes of course I am, well mostly at least. I may not like some of this stuff, but the point is that your right in your arguments, all of them, let's just hope you're not making a mistake," Sirius looked away from Harry as if feeling uneasy "the ends justify the means." He whispered to himself, trying to justify his consent in the matter. _

"_Thank you, I'll be careful. I promise. This WILL help, I know it_

_End flashback._

"Harry, HARRY!" Sirius snapped his godson out of the trance he had fallen into, "I'm going to assume your going to go back to hitting the books for the rest of the day, but before you do that lets have a bit to eat shall we? I'll just take your silence as a 'Why thank you Sirius, I would love lunch'." Sirius laughed at his own joke before summoning his family house elf, a despicable creature called Kreacher, who appeared with a pop.

"What can Kreacher do for master and young master?" the old elf, while normally resentful and insane, had changed his attitude with the arrival of Harry. Harry had always treated other creatures kindly, having no prejudice against any particular race or species, so when Harry met Kreacher originally he treated him with a kindness that Kreacher had never known. Of course, this had made Kreacher much more inclined to treat Harry with respect and even affection, and by extension Sirius as well.

"Kreacher, would you mind making us some lunch?" Sirius politely asked "Surprise us," Kreacher bowed in acceptance and with a snap of his fingers the ancient cooking apparatuses begun to move on their own, the stove fired itself up with no prompting while the cabinet doors opened and dishes floated out onto the table, which wasted no time in setting themselves on the table in a manner appropriate for a non formal lunch between two people.

While they waited for their food to be ready Sirius started talking about his plans for the two of them that summer. While for the most part they would stay at Grimmauld Place because it's much safer for Sirius that way, Sirius did want to take Harry on a 'family vacation' for the first time in either of their lives at some point during that summer. For now he was talking about possibly going to the Greek isles or Italy, but then again the week before he was talking about taking a trip to the Caribbean, and next week he'll probably start talking about California. Harry didn't mind much, he didn't really care where they went as long as Sirius didn't get arrested or anything. Which was not even that big of a deal anymore since Harry had planned out how to deal with such an event if it should come to pass, he had to use his money and fame for something before it ran out after all.

Kreacher set a large platter of bread in front of each with a bowl of what smelled like onion soup, giving them a short bow before popping away. They ate mostly in silence, meaning Harry didn't say a word and Sirius carried on a one-sided conversation during the entirety of the meal. Sirius finished with a sigh, he knew what Harry was going to do, and like all the rest of the times he didn't like it. But he allowed it, which was all that mattered.

"Do you need any help with this one?" Sirius asked Harry uneasily. Harry shook his head.

"Do you mind if I watch to ease my mind a bit?" Harry shrugged his shoulders, as if to say he didn't really care either way. "Thank you, this way if something does go wrong somehow I'll be able to help." Harry nodded dismissively.

Minutes later they were both in a large room which Sirius had earlier in the summer allowed Harry to dedicate for this single individual purpose. Sirius stepped to the side and watched as Harry picked up a bag of sand and poured it into a specific pattern around a covered portion of the floor. That done he picked up an ancient looking dagger, he had picked it up last week from Borgin's and Burkes shop for this exact purpose, and clenched his teeth together as he carved the same pattern as was created by the sand into his wrist. Once the blood from his wrist was flowing freely he pressed his opposite hand into the blood, imprinting it onto his hand, and pressed down on into the center of the pattern of sand. The result was instantaneous. A shockwave of pure energy shot out from the center of the sand and pushed itself into Harry's body, lifting him off the ground as pain filled his every being, pain unlike anything he had ever experienced up until that point, the cruciatus was nowhere near this level of agony. But as quickly as it had started, it stopped. Harry dropped to the floor, panting as he tried to regain the breath he had lost silently screaming. Sirius looked on, concerned.

"What did this one do?" Harry pointed over to an open book lying near a bag, filled with more ingredients no doubt. Sirius took the book and read down the page that was marked.

_Pain Tolerance Curse_

_This ritual will, if performed successfully, raise the pain tolerance of the performer to such a high degree that if the caster by any chance would be unfortunate enough to have to the cruciatus curse performed on them, it would be like experiencing a mere broken bone was suffered. The drawbacks of this is subtle. Of course since the performed would not be able to feel but the most intense pain they would not notice smaller wounds that could potentially be fatal, such as a cut reaching an artery. Perform at your own risk; the pain of the ritual itself is known to sometimes kill. _

_Instructions as followed: _

Sirius stopped reading at that point; he understood the need for Harry to perform this but the warning near the end of the explanation obviously worried him. But he knew it was necessary, especially with Harry's plans.

* * *

The next day Dumbledore stopped by on Sirius's request, he wanted the Fidelius charm performed on Grimmauld Place for added security. After that he also wanted to talk about Dumbledore possibly giving Harry some lessons on legilimency, which is highly necessary at this point.

"Now then, before I perform this it is necessary that you choose a secret keeper, I of course am willing to offer my services to you in that regard. It would certainly make allowing other members of our little club," Dumbledore subtly glanced at Harry "into the house easier. But ultimately the choice is yours of course."

"Yes I would prefer you to be the secret keeper Albus, although it would be considerate of you if you did not allow every single person who felt the need to into my home. Please just ask first."

"Very well." Dumbledore nodded his acceptance and took out his wand to perform the charm.

Moments later the house disappeared from Harry and Sirius's view only to reappear moments later as Dumbledore showed them the location with a piece of parchment.

"Is that all the two of you needed?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

"Actually yes there is," Sirius motioned over to Harry "as you can see Harry here has been rather quiet recently, there is a reason for that," he left off without explanation.

"Ah, would you care to explain why then?" Dumbledore looked for the first time in quite awhile, surprised.

"I'll let Harry explain that to you in due time, but in order for him to do that he needs you to teach him legilimency. He has some other reasons to learn that but the main one is so he can communicate with other people other than writing and hand gestures." Sirius mimed Harry's occasionally angry wild gesturing with a smirk.

"But why?" Dumbledore persisted in his questioning "I am quite willing to teach him but why can't he just talk?" Sirius sighed.

"That's simple enough I suppose, it's because Harry here," he gestured over to Harry again, "recently performed a ritual that exponentially raised his brain function, and gave him a photographic memory, but it had one side effect."

"And what was that?" Dumbledore looked very interested and even more concerned at what he was hearing.

"It rendered him mute, we think permanently,"

* * *

_Alright well i wrote this without any outline or anything so basically i'd love it if you guys could Read and Review and let me know if this fic has merit to becoming a novel length fic and all that fun shit. review about whatever, i welcome flames, criticism, basically whatever you can think to throw at me. as a result i will be dedicating this ending part of each chapter to responding to each and every review i receive just because i feel that if you put in the time to say something i should respond appropriately. _

_anyway until next time, love you guys and i hope you like the fruits of my imagination! _


End file.
